WND EXCLUSIVE

Middle East sounds off on Obama election

'Mr. Change is here again; Four more years without change'

Kayhan, a publication that serves as a mouthpiece for the Iranian regime, says Barack Obama is weak, unable to solve challenges and has the same “serial crimes” as the predecessor from whom he inherited the White House: George W. Bush.

“Obama is too weak to solve the important challenges: The Palestinian question and the security of the occupying regime, the Islamic awakening, and the Iranian challenge,” the publication said, according to a report today from the Middle East Media Research Institute.

The organization that monitors Middle East media, interprets and reports on the statements has compiled a list of comments from editorials and leaders about Obama’s narrow popular vote margin in the 2012 presidential election.

“Kayhan expressed its disdain for Obama’s re-election with its November 8 front-page headline: ‘Mr. Change Is Here Again, Four More Years Without Change,'” MEMRI reported. “In its editorial that day, the paper stated that as far as the American voters were concerned, the election was between ‘bad and worse.'”

“Obama is the same weak Bush. The America of 2012 is the same America of 2001, that has lost its value,” MEMRI said the newspaper wrote. “The sum total of the [U.S.’s] crimes during Obama’s term is no less than that during the Bush term. The traces of the U.S. and its serial crimes can be spotted in all the crises in the region – Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Bahrain, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Iraq. It suffered great defeats in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine…

“Obama and his administration have nothing new to say – not only to Iran but also to most of the countries of the world, and to Europe as well,” the newspaper wrote.

Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was in Bali, Indonesia, for a conference and said elections in the West “have turned into the scene for the propaganda campaign of the capitalists and huge expenses and many independent, decent and efficient figures do not get the chance to participate in ruling [their countries].”

And judicial chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani said that the Iranian people would never forget the crimes of Obama’s sanctions.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, judiciary authority official and head of Iran’s Human Rights Council, said: “If the interests of the [Iranian] regime demand it, we will negotiate with America, even from the deepest depths of Hell.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said, as the election results were coming in, that Tehran would judge the U.S. according to its deeds, not according to its words: “Any evaluation of the promise of change will be based on the actual policy and performance of U.S. officials.” He said Washington must change its “mistaken policy.”

The reformist daily Mardomsalari said, “The Keys to the White House Remain In Democratic Hands… The Warmongers Are Defeated”

An op-ed in the reformist daily Etemaad said, “Romney emits a scent of war, [while] from Obama there arises a melody of paying attention to the economic agenda.” MEMRI reported the article continued, “The [re]election of Obama will be a nightmare for the right-wingers in Israel, particularly for Netanyahu… [because] Obama has had the worst relationship in recent years with the occupying regime.”

From the Taliban in Afghanistan: “Obama May Have Realized That The Americans Have Lost The War In Afghanistan.” It continued, “Obama may have realized that the Americans have lost the war in Afghanistan; if so, they [the Americans] should leave our pious land as soon as possible, instead of telling lies, and should worry about their country and their people.”

MEMRI said Obama earned “lukewarm responses” in other parts of the Arab world.

“The Syrian regime, for its part, attacked U.S. policy under Obama and even warned America not to consider military intervention in Syria now, after the elections. In Egypt, Muslim Brotherhood (MB) officials stressed that Egypt could rely on itself and would no longer be subordinate to the U.S. Articles in the Egyptian press claimed that no change could be expected in the American policy, which had always served Israel,” the report from MEMRI said.

One editorial in the Saudi daily Al-Yawm “called on Obama to take a courageous stance and save the Syrian people: ‘A second term in office [means that] President Obama has a weighty political and moral obligation to fulfill in the Middle East. His first responsibility as part of this is [to address] the tragedy of the oppressed Syrian citizens, who, for the last two years, have been under deadly [attack] by planes, missiles and tanks, and have no hope except an international initiative that will save them from hell,'” it said.

MEMRI said the Saudi daily Al-Riyadh called for America to support the Syrian opposition, saying that is “crucial.”

From the Qatari daily Al-Watan, “[Obama] must undertake a brave and comprehensive reassessment of his country’s stance on various crises, and adjust his reading of [the situation] in various regions where deadly conflicts are under way, in order to rescue and help peoples whose rights have been usurped and who have been deprived of their right to freedom, dignity and social justice…”

From the Muslim Brotherhood came the warning, through Izzat Mustafa, a member of the MB party’s High Committee in Egypt, that Egypt will not be allowed to be subordinate to the U.S.

Deputy MB party head Issam Al-Aryan said, “The U.S.’s foreign policy will not change much. Accepting the will of the Arab people is the most important change. We must rely on ourselves and our resources, and build our country. Egypt, without direct American influence, can influence and lead the process of building a constitutional and democratic regime…”

“Hussein Darwish, a Syrian journalist residing in Dubai, addressed Obama in a sarcastic article he posted on an oppositionist Syrian website: ‘Mr. President, I know, just like everyone else, that, had you wanted to put an end to the Syrian crisis, you would have done so. But you waited for the election results. [Now] you have four more years leading the world. How about turning your attention to the Middle East, and taking a step that will bring about real change, for us and for you? I am not asking you to [undertake] a military operation against Syria, God forbid… but [only] to take a step that will help us out of the impasse in which we are stuck thanks to your long silence.'”